Revell 1:96 USS Constitution build

I purchased this kit and started my build in mid-March of 2016. This will be my fouth model ship but my 1st sailing ship with rigging. I am hoping to stay close to what she may have looked like in 1812. To help me along the way, I purchased Anatomy of a Ship: The 44-Gun Frigate USS Constitution as a guide. I have followed some amazing builds by Force9, Capt Isaac Hull and Arnie60 to name a few, in order to get as much information and tips that I can for my model. I am a complete novice but I will try my best to get a decent build with this model. The first thing I did was to wash everything gently in soap and water and allow to dry. Spent two or three days going over the two manuals that were included in the kit and then... after taking a deep breath, I started in. I used sanding sticks to file any flash off of the two hull pieces and then ca glued the two together. Thank goodness for Harbor Frieght for clamps! I then ran a thick bead of ca glue all along inside seam of hull to strengthen bond. Once dry, I spray painted entire hull with gray primer. I taped off lower half and spray painted upper hull black. I then ran Tamiya tape along bottom and top of gun ports and spray painted them a flat white. After drying, I then taped off upper hull and spray painted lower hull copper.

I finished painting trim on bow of ship by using a very fine brush and a pin dipped into flat white enamel. I then attached only the first two gun covers on each side of bow. I used Xacto knife to duplicate a split cover and then drilled hole for gun muzzle. Filled in gap on hinge hole and touched up with flat black on cover - gun metal on hinge. I plan on leaving the rest of covers off but will make a couple of 'stacks' of split covers to be placed on gun deck for veiwing through spar deck hatch.

Those split covers look really good in white & up & down from the gunport. I built the Mamoli wood one 35 years ago & it is still a focal point of my living room. I can see you are going to do a real good job from your start.

Moved on to long guns for gun deck. Cut cannons from sprue and filed some of the seams. Glued each half together and let dry on toothpicks stuck in styrofoam. After dried, I used a drill bit to clean out gun barrel and then painted all of them gun metal. Moved on to gun carriages and cleaned some of them up with some filing. I mixed a flat red with some flat brown to get a salmon color. Wheels were painted flat black. After looking at some builds that featured gun tackle, I decided I'd give it a try. I will only do this on the guns that will be visible through spar deck hatch opening. The rest will have only the breeching lines. I drilled holes for 2mm and 1.5mm eye pins into carriages. My breeching line is from CIM ( Cottage Industry Models). I used 26 gauge wire with 3mm single blocks ( I ordered from Megahobby) and twisted a hook on end of block. Then threaded line through holes in blocks to finish up. I used a helping hand to hold blocks while threading. This is pretty basic compared to what I've seen on other builds but, I feel comfortable with what I did.

Gene - thanks a lot! I'm trying to catch up by posting these pictures. It's now December and I still haven't got my gun deck in. I'd like to go faster but I don't want to ruin this kit. I find myself going back and doing some minor alterations/repairs to things that I've done. I'm installing LED lights with a dimmer switch to help illuminate gun deck and officers quarters.

Oh what fun! The great gun port lid question. It's established that warships in the early 19 th century could have no lids, single lids and split lids, either vertical or horizontal. What the Constitution had in 1812 is a little difficult to know. No lids on the hull model, Campbell shows single lids, lots of paintings of contemporary American ships without lids, single lids being the general practice in previous centuries. I don't remember Captain Martin comments on the subject. I've gone with Campbell the two times I built that model ( well, I went with Revell ).

GMorrisson - I know what you mean about questions about this ship. I followed a very lenghty post as to what color the stipe of the gun port was and came to the conclusion that, depending on who's articles/paintings/books one went with, it was up in the air. I finally chose to go with a white strip whether right or wrong. I was originally going to mount the gun lids, but I read some articles that the lids were stowed below decks when going into battle, so I decided to try and comprimise by trying to show both. It made sense that the most forward lid(s) were usually covered to prevent the bow spray from entering into the ship while at sea from what I've read. I am so new to all of this that I hope I can keep my model, to the best of my ability, a 'close' replica of her early days. These forums are like a life preserver for people like myself to try and keep my head above water LOL. Since my 1st build a few years back, I've been following many of these posts and have attempted some new skills that, otherwise, I would never have known about or tried. My gun tackle is one of them, as simple as it may be. I thank all of you for being open and willing to share ideas and pointers for other modelers!

I moved on to the three-piece gun deck. After reading other posts about reinforcing the pieces for better stability, I did the same by glueing wooden strips to the underside of deck to give me more glueing space to keep pieces together. Ahh... I then learned about styrene strips and sheets after I used wood! After I had primed the deck, I tried my hand at painting my deck to give a weathered look. I used a dark brown on hatch coaming and light brown on hatches. I then repainted the hatch coamings a flat black for contrast. I was not happy with the results and it still left me with the seams. I was also worried that by filling seams and sanding, it would destroy the wood-like pattern on the deck. Solution: I went online and purchased a lazer cut wood deck from ScaleDecks. I was then able to putty seams, sand and adhere my purchase over the deck(s). After looking at the Hull model, I changed the hatch coamings to the same green I used on the bulwarks. There was a slight bow in my deck so I used a hair dryer to warm the plastic and the lay it flat with a couple of books as weight. I cannot remember whether it was on Force9 or Arnie60's build or both, but they used PE parts to add the camboose on the gun deck. I showed it to my wife and she made me a stove and brick floor from Sculpy for my model. It is not accurate but it certainly works for me. I then added my 'brine' barrel from ModelExpo next to the stove. I also tried my hand at recreating shot holders by using 2mm ball bearings painted flat black glued into small strips of L-shaped styrene around hatches.

Here are my re-worked gun ports. I filled in the hinge holes and then sanded smooth. I then had to re-tape and repaint both gun stipe and upper hull but I'm happy with my results. I made two 'stacks' of gun lids by glueing four lids together for eacj stack. I used my Xacto knife to recreate split hatch covers and then drilled out center hole for cannon muzzle. Lids were painted flat black and hinges gun metal. These are not glued in place for this picture. I'm sure these would have been stored below gun deck but I will have these visible on my gun deck to portray how they would have looked. Artistic interest! lol

This then opened up another idea for my build. What if I showed another deck below? In reality, it would be the berthing deck, but I plan on using folded hammocks in netting rails on top deck, so I wanted to show some storage items instead. I cut out the main hatch on gun deck with my Xacto and then sanded rough edges until smooth. I then glued three strips of wood to create walls and to give me something to attach my false third deck to. I ordered some HO scale metal barrels and crates and used acrylic primer and paints to give them a weathered look. I glued them to my false deck and this is my finished results. I know this is not historically accurate, but I wanted to add another little thing to look at with my model.

Steve - many thanks for taking a look and the kind words! You can see on my deck photo some drops of green paint. I must have been tired, when I went to repaint the coamings, I didn't have the lid of paint bottle on tight enough when I shook the bottle. Oops! I hope one of the guns might cover it up or I'll try to think of something that will hide it. I'm trying to get myself caught up to where I am now with my build by posting these photos so rapidly. I wish my work on this model could go by this quickly! If I'm lucky, I'll try to get the gun deck installed before the year ends.

I apologize for not taking more photos while working on my stern of ship. This was somewhere around June or July. I looked at the diagram in AOS and saw the different changes in windows and such over the years. By now, I had already painted the stern and had done the trim. Once again, I found myself reworking a part of the ship. I did not feel confident to try to change my windows from 6 to 3 but I did like the lower hatches. I also noticed that on the Hull model, the name of the ship was not used. I shaved the name off with a small chisel and a few decorations along the top. I taped off the windows so I wouldn't have to repeat painting them. I also incorporated the two lower hatches on my stern. I did this by taping off my square of opening, then used a drill bit to drill along tape boundary and then cut square out with Xacto knife. I sanded edges smooth and notched in hinge holes for my lid covers. I also added four eyebolts for rudder chain but I may have placed them too low. I then sprayed entire piece with primer and once dried, I sprayed with black enamel paint. I then sprayed DullCoat over the gloss to blend in with my hull on ship.

So this is what I did with the officers quarters. After cutting from sprue and cleaning them up, I sprayed everything with white primer and flat white. The upper trim on the walls was an accident. I hadn't completly cleaned a brush with some red paint and it came out a peach color when mixed with the white. I liked it and finished all trim with that color. I wanted to 'personalize' the photos to be used on the walls, so my wife was kind enough to reduce three photos with photoshop for me to use. So tiny! I chose to use a photo of her and I in our Ren Faire Pirate gear to go over the central bed /couch with table. My little tribute to her!The other two are period world maps. Desks, table and door trim painted a dark brown. Door panels were painted using rust color. I got the idea to place charts on one of the desks and the table. I used colored pencils to draw map on piece of paper, then used a 50/50 mix of water and white glue to give shape of rolled up charts. I then used some watercolor wash to make them look aged. I decided to use two of the figures in this room for some realism. These will probably be the only figures that I use for this model. Everything in these photos have not been glued down - just positioning to get an idea of how it may look.

You have really come a long way & it does look super. I love you interior details. I did a lot of that with train layouts. I will send you some pictures of my Mamoli Constitution. I built it 35 years ago when i could still do a lot of close work. At 86 this month I am a lot less agile with my hands, but enjoy building even more. I love these plastic ships. because I passed them before.

Here are pics of my ship's boats built early on. I'm sorry I did not take more pictures while constructing them. Basically, I sanded and primed all pieces white. I taped off hull and painted keels rust enamel. It gives a warmer look to me. I also used the rust on seats for the boats but tried to give a 'worn' look to where the men would have been seated by brushing off some of the paint. Floor of hull was painted dark brown. I then glued seats to boat hulls. My oars were painted with light brown and paddles a dark brown. I used a fine brush on my first two oars rowlocks, but switched over to using a fine point black marker for the rest. One learns along the way! Some one must have thrown me a peanut LOL * I realize I need to add more oars to my boats - things to do.

I came across a post on Making Rope Coils on NRG's site by Modeler12 and borrowed his aproach by putting a nail through a block of wood and attaching two pieces of plastic to 'sandwich' the line and keep coil flat. After dipping my line in 50/50 mix water & white glue, I attached string to nail and then turned my wood block while I kept line tight in my other hand until I had my coil. Then removed off of nail with xacto before coil completely dried. * I plan to use Hornet's idea for future coils by using kids plastic 'counters' from that same post for making mulitiple coils. After making my coils, I then glued them down on floor of each boat (some where used after a line was tied and glued from eyelet to hull floor, then coil placed on top on line).

These pics were taken around August of 2016 and I put together my wooden base, drilled holes in hull for mounting and LED lighting with dimmer switch, and glued the Scaledecks wood deck onto the spar deck. I glued on the stove funnel and capston to deck. Rework time: After looking at the diagram of funnel in AOS and a build by Force9, I decided to redo the funnel. 1st step was to use a 1/4" punch on a thin piece of styrene to create baffle. I then used a stem of one of my eye pins to bend into a U-shape. I glued that to each side of funnel opening and then glued my styrene punch to the wire. I drilled holes at the base of the funnel and glued eyelets into them to create the turning of funnel. Finished by painting all with flat black.

I bought my base of wood at Michael's and cut 1/4" square length of wood into 4.5" lengths to use as cross beams. I used 1/2" square length of wood to make 'rails' to run the length of keel and hide my mounting bolts and wiring into the ship's hull. Base and rails stained with Cabot Autumn Glow and cross beams stained with Testors Flat Black Acrylic Wash.

Toshi - HaPpY HoLiDaYS to you! Thanks for taking a look and following along. I see you are retired also. It's good to stay busy and creative. This is my fourth model build and my first attempt with a true sailng ship. So far, things have been going fairly smooth with this kit and I will be extremly happy when I get my decks in place. Cheers and enjoy yoursel!

Robert, I hope I am not too late to remind you to put a piece of shaped 1x2 or a piece of large dowel in the bottom of the hull to take screws that hold the ship to the base. I even did that on my big wood models. You can super glue or epoxy them in & about 6" or 7" long

Maybe I didn't understand what you have already done to take care of this.

Thanks Gene for that advice. As of now, I have to two metal bolts that will run up from bottom of wood base into the hull of the ship. Tightened down with washers and nuts. It seems tight enough but maybe I will add glue to them to keep them from loosening.

Bill Morrison - you're absoluetly right about the wonderful modelers in these pages. The gallery is filled with model after model of finely worked kits. These sites are an inmense help for someone like myself in working on one's skills while, at the same time, seeing how many amazing models from modelers are out there. Hats off to all of them!

O.K. So my goals for December is to 1) finish installing my lights in the hull, 2) get my gun deck mounted in place and 3) try to start getting my 24 pounders in. I also purchased from Megahobby - Bragdon Enterprises set of weathering powders (FF-162) for my copper painted hull. Set includes Old Yeller,Green Grunge,The Blues,& Used Brick. Somewhere, in one of the posts I had read, a gentleman mentioned that he had used these products (sparingly) on his painted hull to achieve his weathering and had included a picture that looked really nice. I'll see how it goes when they arrive.

My micro drill bits took a slight detour thanks to UPS but they finally arrived! While waiting, I started in on dulling down my copper painted hull using Green Grunge and Used Brick powders from Bragdon Enterprises. I used a stiff bristle brush to apply powders, then hit with Dullcoat. Repeated process a second time. Maybe one or two more layers and I'll stop. I do not want to weather it too far.